


Out of the Water

by Stormlyht



Series: What Shall I Write Next? [1]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: But it was only once, Derek knows his secret, Gen, Merman Stiles, suicidal derek
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-23
Updated: 2014-02-23
Packaged: 2018-01-13 13:44:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,533
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1228597
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Stormlyht/pseuds/Stormlyht
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Derek lost his family, he tried to kill himself and was saved by a boy in the water.  Years later he recognizes the boy, but the boy doesn't remember Derek.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Out of the Water

He’d been 17 when he’d tried to kill himself. His whole family was gone, because of him, and he started out by ingesting wolfsbane, followed that by a whole bottle of Jack and three twelve packs of Budweiser. Barely able to stand, Derek had gone to the pond deep in the woods and thrown himself into the water. 

He could hardly stand, certainly couldn’t swim. It was done purposefully, so he would drown. His leather jacket weighed him down, the boots with their steel toes did too. Slowly, Derek sank, and he struggled for a little while, survival instinct and all that, but finally he just stopped fighting.

Eyes wide open as he sank to the bottom, he watched different kinds of fish swim past him. Then he caught sight of a long, bright tail, bigger than anything that he’d ever seen in the pond before. A face suddenly swam into focus, dark hair, pale skin, moles across cheeks. Derek hadn’t ever seen this young boy before. Worry flashed through the boy’s eyes, and Derek tried to tell him that he was fine, but he couldn’t form words.

Arm slipped under his own and he was being hauled up and to the surface. No, Derek wanted oblivion, he wanted death, but he couldn’t articulate and suddenly he was above the surface. Water was being pounded out of him by a strong but small fist on his back. He choked, puked a few times, and then was carried through the water to the edge.

Gasping for breath, he crawled up the beach and vomited again, mostly water this time, and glanced back to the water. The boy was smiling and waved at Derek, then turned and disappeared under the surface, the large green and blue scaled tail flicking in the air before it disappeared as well. He hadn’t known they were real, mermaids, or in this case, mermen. There wasn’t even a mother to ask about them anymore, and Derek fell onto the beach, sobbing until the ache of her loss had lessened, at least a little bit.

*

When he came back to Beacon Hills, the first thing he’d noticed was the boy standing next to the new werewolf. It was *the* boy, the very boy from the water, six years older but undeniably him. Still skinny, still with those black dots across his face, and still wearing that unbelieveable smile.

His name was Stiles, or at least, thats what he was called. Derek learned quickly that out of the water Stiles was loud, obnoxious, faithful to a fault, and incredibly annoying. It was hard to make the merman of the past equal the boy of the present, but Derek tried. He assumed it was just because he hadn’t really talked to the merboy, so obviously he had no idea what he’d be like when he did talk.

Odd thing was, Stiles didn’t seem to remember him. Not at all. Which Derek had to assume was because he’d changed so much over the years. He’d filled out, gotten strong as a wolf, looked more broody than ever before, but Stiles hadn’t seemed to realize that there were werewolves in the woods, and Derek knew he’d wolfed out in front of the merman.

The few times he’d dropped hints about the lake, Stiles had been confused, hadn’t seemed to know what Derek was talking about, and that was confusing as well. Still, he had to figure that Stiles was hiding his secret, apparently even from Scott.

When he’d been floating in the water of the pool he had wanted Stiles to get out, to be safe, he’d all but forgotten by then that Stiles had been the one who’d rescued him from death when he was young. Later on, Derek wondered why he hadn’t asked Stiles to transform, to keep them afloat better, but could Stiles really have done better? Derek didn’t think so, and his respect for the boy went up, albeit grudgingly.

*

It was after the Kanima was Jackson again, after they’d found Erica and Boyd, after the alpha pack and Jennifer was dealt with, that Derek finally turned to Stiles. They were in his Camaro driving away from town in search of a rare book a few towns over that supposedly had some information on the pixies that were now haunting the forest. It seemed as good a place as any for this conversation.

“Do you… Stiles, do you know you’re a merman?” Derek asked, unsubtally but curious none the less. The snort from Stiles answered that question easily.

“Yeah, I breathe water and grow a tail on the full moons, haven’t you noticed.” He looked up from his phone and shook his head. “Not.”

“Mermen don’t change only on the full moon. It’s something they can control, something they have some power over, instead of it having power over them. They don’t work the same way werewolves do, they’re a different creature entirely,” Derek explained, glancing at Stiles and holding his gaze for a few moments.

“That’s fascinating, and something I’ll have to look up in the bestiary, but not something that I am. That’s just, even thinking about it… kind of weird.” Stiles chuckled and went back to his phone.

“So,” Derek went on, not wanting to stop this conversation just yet. “You haven’t noticed a particular fondness for water, or the ability to float that is more pronounced than anyone else you know? You’ve never been able to do things physically in the water that you would never be able to do on land?” Derek pressed, and Stiles slammed a hand down on his leg.

“No, okay, what happened at the school was me being badass and keeping you afloat and you can’t even say thank you properly for that! It’s called leg muscles, and I have them because I do a lot of running, and jumping and moving, not because I sprout a tail and swim in the ocean!” Stiles snapped.

“Fine,” Derek put up a hand and shook his head. Whatever had happened to Stiles to make him forget that ability was deeply ingrained in his subconscious and blocked out everything that could trigger the memories. He wondered if it was a spell of some variety, but figured that he’d have to just forget about it for now.

*

The pixies were fairly easy to deal with, once the right spells were performed, and once they had a part of the forest to call their own. Derek set up patrols around their area to keep wanderers out, but figured anyone who got past werewolves and entered pixieland got what they deserved. Curiosity killed the cat and all.

He talked to Deaton a week after that because he couldn’t stop thinking about it. What had Stiles so convinced he wasn’t anything other than a normal human being?

“Stiles doesn’t know he’s a merman,” he said by way of greeting, and Deaton raised his eyebrows at him.

“And you would know, because you’ve tried to tell him he is,” Deaton returned easily and Derek shrugged.

“Yes.” Being blunt seemed to have it’s advantages.

“He won’t remember that way,” Deaton said, wiping his hands off on a towel and looking at Derek. “He needs… a heavier stimulant, and even then…” he shrugged. “Stiles might never remember.”

“What happened?” Derek asked, crossing his arms.

“His mother blocked the memories. From him, from his father, from Scott. It’s all gone. If you break the spell, everyone will remember, and that could lead to things even more dangerous.”

“Like what?” Derek asked with a frown.

“Well, for instance, the same thing that killed his mother could return to kill him.” Deaton was watching Derek closely as he spoke.

“I’ll protect Stiles from any creature that comes here for him. What else?” Even as he said it though, Derek knew that was something he wasn’t certain he could promise.

“It’s not a creature Derek, it’s a disease that flows in the bloodlines. It has wiped out whole strains of merfolk that have the same family ties. She blocked off not just the memory, but the abilities and physical attributes as well to make certain that Stiles doesn’t follow in her footsteps.”

Oh. That changed everything. Didn’t it? “You helped her, didn’t you?” Derek asked, and Deaton gave him that smile that meant he wasn’t telling.

“She was a friend of mine. I would never intentionally harm her son in any way.” Which meant that Deaton felt the spellwork was safe.

“Will it kill him, for certain, if he remembers?” Derek asked, worry licking through his body.

“I don’t know. He carries his mother’s blood, of course, but that particular disease…. it isn’t a guaranteed thing. The question here is, is it worth the risk?” Deaton’s eyes held Derek’s own for several, long, moments. Finally Derek lowered his gaze. “I didn’t think so. Is there anything else Derek?”

“No. Thank you.”

He left the clinic feeling like this was some kind of unsolved puzzle that he had to put away because all the pieces weren’t in the box. Could he force Stiles to remember? Maybe. As he’d admitted to Deaton though, it wasn’t worth the risk.

**Author's Note:**

> This was done on a lark, and I'm not sure if I'm going to write more. Just a fair warning. It kind of stands alone, and I like that. I totally have a thing for merfolk of all varieties.


End file.
